Weekly Update: Mar 7, 2018

This has been a week of contrasts, from the search for manatees in Crystal River (unsuccessful, due to the warm weather making them flee to the Gulf of Mexico), the end of vacation week (sigh) and the acquisition of a new (inflatable) kayak. Oh, and perhaps the best thing, a shiny new fan for my trailer.

The trailer fan has been a bit flaky for months, start, stop, start, stop and never spinning for more than a few minutes at a time. Today, after three hours at the RV repair shop, I now have a new fan and it works great. Just in time for the heat and humidity of a southeastern Spring!

Back to vacation, though, which was Wed-Sunday. My niece and I went on a short hike near Gainesville, with our friends Mary and Mike, where we enjoyed a gentle breeze, lovely skies and spotted birds and an alligator.

Thursday through Saturday morning, we hung out in Crystal River. No manatees, but much good conversation and laughter, and a lovely walk on a nature trail. The cover photo is a weird little fish we saw; no idea what it was but it was cool.

The vacation week ended on a high note, watching the Orlando Magic basketball team eke out a win over the visiting team (Memphis). My niece, from Berlin and a veteran of European soccer (football) games was completely amazed by the noise and cheers, the floor entertainment during timeouts, and the general chaos of a truly American sports event.

On my way home Sunday, I stopped by REI to pick up my new inflatable kayak. After being without a kayak for three years now, it was time to get back to it. The trial run will be Friday, if the weather cooperates. The bonus of an inflatable is that it fits nicely on my back seat and therefore I don’t have to deal with loading and unloading it from the roof, or worrying about it being up there all the time.

I wrote most of this post today (Wednesday) sitting in the waiting area of the Tax Collector’s office, waiting to get Breeze a shiny new Florida license plate and update my driver’s license so I can complete my voter registration and be done with moving paperwork. I’m so ready to be done with moving paperwork!

Another weekend in Gainesville coming up, including shopping the farmers’ market and tidying up the trailer a bit and then Monday, off to new adventures! This one will take me all the way to Quebec by July, so stay tuned!

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Hello! You have a Needle fish there. It is related to Flying fish and will jump out of the water to evade predators. This all per daughter in Marine bio at FIU. We really enjoy your adventures, and hope to make it to Quebec too this summer.

Ah, needlefish, cool, thank you! There were a dozen of them of all sizes and we really had fun spotting them in the shallows. Hope to meet you in Quebec, that rally will be crazy but we will do Alto things too 🙂